Ponsse: new machines for a new climate
Climate change drives the development of new forest machines. At Elmia Wood, Ponsse presented two new machines built to meet the new conditions. A harvester and a forwarder, both built for soft ground.
The machines had their world premiere at the Elmia Wood international forestry fair in Jönköping, Sweden.
“Climate change has a dual effect,” says Benny Sondell, CEO of Ponsse AB in Sweden.
“First, the warmer, wetter winters mean we need machines for terrain with poorer load-bearing capacity. And second, the increased demand for biofuel is causing felling on land that hasn’t been felled before.”
In addition, the Nordic cut-to-length method has gained market share in other parts of the world where felling is often done on steep slopes, requiring more stable machines with eight wheels.
The harvester is called Ponsse Fox and is primarily designed for thinning but can also do final felling. The eight-wheeled machine weighs 18 tonnes and has an 11-meter-long crane to be effective when thinning from strip roads.
Increased accessibility for the harvester places more demands on its working partner, the forwarder. Ponsse has therefore developed a “wetland version” of its well-known 12-tonne forwarder, Wisent. There is now a 10w version, which stands for ten wheels. A third pair of wheels has been added to the rear unit, which also gives a slightly longer load space.
At Elmia Wood, Ponsse also exhibited the production version of its bioharvester, a forwarder that has been specially adapted for slash handling. The bioharvester was shown as a concept at the SkogsElmia forestry fair two years ago and has now been put into production.